random replacements sighting of the day

[Rene']

norton said:

I hear quite a lot of the Mats on XM Radio, both the Alt Hits station and the 80's channel (Lucy and Fred or something like that).

Fred is channel 44 and the Replacements are played pretty often on this channel.

[Meri]

And now, for something completely different.

click to listen: I Will Dare[/color]




Trio pounds rock into jazz


By Rob Thomas
The piano bumps out a jazzy, faintly familiar melody. Then an understated bass line adds some additional bounce, and a vibraphone envelops the entire song with a dreamy sheen. And then the vocalist begins to sing.


"How young are you? How old am I?/Let's count the rings around my eyes/How smart are you? How dumb am I?/Don't count on any of my advice./Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime, I don't care./Meet me tonight. If you will dare, I will dare. "

By now, rock fans will recognize that the song played by the jazz trio is actually The Replacements' "I Will Dare," best known in its original incarnation as a raucous, guitar-driven rock song.

But what's startling is how comfortably the song fits into this new, percolating jazz arrangement by the Minneapolis-based New Standards. The words could be crooned by some world-weary torch singer, Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin, just as easily as they were belted out by the Replacements' Paul Westerberg.

"We're trying to draw attention to how great the songs are, that the songs can sustain the scrutiny of other musicians looking at them and re-imagining them," says New Standards bass player and vocalist John Munson. "I've had people come up to me and say, 'I never knew the words to "I Will Dare." ' The words are great, and it's cool to hear them."


The nattily dressed New Standards will make its first appearance in Madison playing at Cafe Montmartre, 117 E. Mifflin St., at 9 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $10 in advance through www.virtuous.com, or $12 at the door.

The group's repertoire runs the gamut of American pop songs of the last 50 years, from 1950s standards ("Inchworm" by Frank Loesser) to 1960s rock ("Wild Horses" by Rolling Stones), from 1970s punk (The Clash's "London Calling") to 1990s alternative rock (Blur's "Song 2" and Beck's "The New Pollution").

Munson might have a personal stake in stripping down the arrangements to familiar rock songs to showcase the lyrics and the songwriting chops within. Prior to starting the New Standards, Munson was a rocker himself, playing bass in two of Minneapolis' most celebrated bands, Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic.

The New Standards' pianist, Chan Poling, is best known as a member of the popular '80s New Wave group the Suburbs. The New Standards even cover the Suburbs' biggest hit, "Love Is the Law."

The trio began after Poling and Munson played at a show for a mutual friend, and decided to embark on a project of their own. They met vibraphonist Steve Roehm through former Trip Shakespeare lead singer Matt Wilson, and thought he would help them redefine the notion of a jazz trio.

"We wanted to shy away from drums, because it does paint you in a little bit," Munson says. "The things that Steve does on vibraphone, his favorite things to do are those very dreamy textures. But you can also get him to bang out the groove, too, which was cool."

The band began playing in jazz clubs around the Twin Cities, and Munson says the city's jazz musicians were very receptive to the rockers-turned-jazzers. He notes that modern jazz bands, including the Minneapolis-based Bad Plus, have had a history of turning familiar pop songs into jazz songs, so the idea wasn't that out there.

"There's these little territories in music, where you want to be careful not to go treading on someone else's turf," Munson says. "I would never presume that I'm a jazzer. I love the music, and I've been a student of it for a long time."

The band's debut CD came out last fall, relatively early in the band's development. Munson says the band has added new songs to its repertoire since then and continues to grow and develop.

"The record is very cool, but I think people should come see the show," he says. "It's a very florid thing and an exciting thing to witness. There's an exciting energy that's really magical."

The band also encourages fans to send requests for new songs through its Web site at www.thenewstandards.com, and Munson says some of the band's favorite songs to play came from outside the group.

" 'Wild Horses' (by the Rolling Stones) is one that a bar manager suggested to us, and in a way I was a little bit dismissive of it, because how can you ever top the Stones version?" Munson says. "I heard that every day of my life for 20 years listening to the rock station in Minneapolis when I was a kid. But once we actually set ourselves to it, it's such a fun song to sing. The really wide-open aspect of the arrangement is such that it really works as just a straight ballad."

As for Semisonic, Munson says the band's future is somewhat cloudy. Vocalist Dan Wilson got tied up in "record company hell" while trying to get his solo album released, and when that album finally does come out in a few months, he'll have a better idea about Semisonic's future. The band members are still friendly with each other, as illustrated by the fact that Wilson produced the New Standards' album.

"There's no official parting of the ways that's gone on, but we're certainly not doing much right now," Munson says. "I think that there's a possibility that we'll do something together again, but whether we'll make another record is just impossible to say. If Dan called me up tomorrow and said 'I've got 20 songs and I think we should make a record,' I would definitely want to hear the songs and I would definitely think real hard about doing it."

E-mail: [e-mail]

www.madison.com/tct/mad/entertainment//index.php?ntid=71904


More samples of their music can be found here: www.thenewstandards.com/music.html

[SnowCover]

I saw them on Saturday night and it was one of the cooler shows that I have ever been to. I also had the good fortune of meeting them individually and talking with them. They were really nice, and it was especially cool to talk to John.

[jd19jd]

"I started making low-budget B-movies in the 1980s ("Psychos in Love"), then got sick of working with people like Charlie Band, so I decided to just write. I did my first novel, "The Second Greatest Story Ever Told," which will be my next film."

This was taken from an October interview with Gorman Bechard. How will he weave Westerberg and company into the film or will he update the time to the present and possibly use fictitous bands?

[cford]

jd19jd said:

"I started making low-budget B-movies in the 1980s ("Psychos in Love"), then got sick of working with people like Charlie Band, so I decided to just write. I did my first novel, "The Second Greatest Story Ever Told," which will be my next film."

This was taken from an October interview with Gorman Bechard. How will he weave Westerberg and company into the film or will he update the time to the present and possibly use fictitous bands?

Well, I hope he makes it like the book - an 80's alternate universe where the Replacements are doing stadium tours... In spite of that inspiration it was a pretty boring book.. I never finished it.

CF

[headlightbeams]

From the Village Voice:

"Thompson's emotional, enigmatic songs, loaded with mordant wit, humanity, and smarts and liberally pin-pricked with chitlin-circuit showmanship and brooding alt-rock sturm und drang (imagine, if possible, the spawn of Arthur Lee, Solomon Burke, and Paul Westerberg)"

So the Voice is saying, if these three had a baby together:




... it would look like this:

[kgp]

I heard 'Dose Of Thunder(?!)' on the radio this morning.

[SnowCover]

Last night at a party multiple people I had never talked to before asked me if I was into the Replacements.

[UnderneathABigHorse]

mrtambourineboy said:

Last night at a party multiple people I had never talked to before asked me if I was into the Replacements.

Sometimes I think you live in a completely different Minnesota from me...

[MWells]

NYU's radio station has been pretty good for a while and their Sunday night programme, "Exploding Heart", hosted by Max is excellent for the powerpop enthusiasts among us, I think. Great stuff tonight from Heavenly, Nick Lowe, Rhett Miller, My Bloody Valentine and one each from The Mats ("Valentine") and Paul solo ("Love Untold"). He (the DJ) has definitely got an appreciation for Paul. I can't think of a week when he hasn't played at least one Mats or PW tune in his 2 hour slot (10pm - midnight). They're at WNYU.org.

[FreeRider]

From today's Washington Post, an article on the Lloyd Dobler character from Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything" and why women liked him over the Jake Ryan character from John Hughes' "Sixteen Candles":


Director/writer Crowe wanted a kid who was thoroughly "Reagan era": lover of good college-radio bands (Fishbone, the Replacements), unpretentious, and upbeat in the face of fashionable Cold War pessimism and ennui.

Typical schlock story for Valentine's Day. Here's the link to the article:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021302411.html

I didn't care much for the movie then and years later when I caught bits of it on TV, I remember thinking how dated it was.

[timtoast]

Here's a stretch....

Someone had on the Paula Dean cooking show on the breakroom TV at lunch today and I heard her say " I can't hardly wait to bite into that burger."


And, shocker, I could share that moment with no one in the room.

*sigh*

[FreeRider]

timtoast said:

Here's a stretch....

Someone had on the Paula Dean cooking show on the breakroom TV at lunch today and I heard her say " I can't hardly wait to bite into that burger."


And, shocker, I could share that moment with no one in the room.

*sigh*

Join the club. There are so many people walking around in darkness, not knowing...consider it a private moment between you and Paul and/or the Mats!

[Color me impressed]

Don't know how true it is, but someone told me there was a episode on a WB show called One Tree Hill in whick the characters dicussed Paul and the Mats for five minutes. It was a result of someone's mother dying on the show and her request to have the replacements played at her funeral. I don't know the song.

[allshookup]

I went and saw X last night at the House of Blues. Between sets the DJ was playing a cool mix of 50s rock, 60s garage and 70s punk, so I shouldn't have been so surprised to hear "Takin a Ride," but I was.

[bigbak]

joet said:

Don't know how true it is, but someone told me there was a episode on a WB show called One Tree Hill in whick the characters dicussed Paul and the Mats for five minutes. It was a result of someone's mother dying on the show and her request to have the replacements played at her funeral. I don't know the song.

That episode is covered on this board[ftp] Westerberg/Replacements plug on One Tree Hill
« Thread Started on 2/1/06 at 22:51 »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I was at the gym when the very well produced piece of sappy, WB teeny-bopper drivel "One Tree Hill" came on the air. I was more or less about to head home when I noticed one character (named Peyton and apparently very music obsessed from what little I gathered) speaking to another character about her favorite song. When she asked the other character what her favorite song was the woman replied "Here Comes a Regular by the Replacements."

She then proceeded to tell a very seemingly ficitional account of attending an outdoor festival in the 80's in Winston Salem, NC in which a horrible storm broke out. When the storm finally settled, after several hours and the loss of power, a lone Paul Westerberg emerged on the stage with only an acoustic guitar to sing "Regular" to the 30,000 fans who decided to ride out the storm. The character said that in typical fashion "he finished the song, smiled...and then threw up and fell off the stage."

I decided to finish the episode out just to see if the song would get played, and sure enough at the end of the show, when the woman who told the story was apparently succumbing to terminal cancer (remember I did say it was sappy drivel) they played almost the entire song over a montage of images.

I thought this was pretty cool name drop considering what little respect classic indie rock and its pioneers get on TV shows aimed at today's 13 to 25 year old demographic. One Tree Hill may have just went up a notch in my book...well...maybe just a little one. Ha, Ha!!
[/ftp]

[Schecky]

allshookup said:

I went and saw X last night at the House of Blues. Between sets the DJ was playing a cool mix of 50s rock, 60s garage and 70s punk, so I shouldn't have been so surprised to hear "Takin a Ride," but I was.

You beat me to it - I was surprised as well.

[The Lizzard]

mrtambourineboy said:

Last night at a party multiple people I had never talked to before asked me if I was into the Replacements.

I don't live too far to the east from you, but it might as well be worlds away... I dare not mention the Replacements at parties I attend.

[mdelirious]

liz said:

mrtambourineboy said:

Last night at a party multiple people I had never talked to before asked me if I was into the Replacements.

I don't live too far to the east from you, but it might as well be worlds away... I dare not mention the Replacements at parties I attend.

mm. It doesn't matter whether or not I mention them. No one I talk to knows who they are...

[The Lizzard]

mdelirious said:

liz said:

I don't live too far to the east from you, but it might as well be worlds away... I dare not mention the Replacements at parties I attend.

mm. It doesn't matter whether or not I mention them. No one I talk to knows who they are...

I've got the opposite problem... some of these people know them all too well.